Recent Projects & Insights

Can Coaching Really Deliver An Extra 19%?

Effective coaching can deliver as much as an extra 19% in terms of the sales performance – that is based on research in 2011 published in the Harvard Business Review. There are strings attached however.

The tendency for managers is to focus their attention on the leaders and laggards on their sales team. However research by the Sales Executive Council shows that coaching the middle ranks (in terms of sales performance) pays the greatest dividend.

In particular it suggests that investing time in those who are struggling the most, the bottom 5% or 10% in most organizations, is not the best strategy. Indeed they are probably beyond help. Quite simply they don’t fit to the role that has been set out.

For the top 10% of performers the research suggests the dividends from coaching may be limited too. Either these players are already reaching the ceiling in terms of what is possible, or managers may have little to add.

The real payoff comes from coaching the middle 60% – the core of the sales team and it is here that a performance boost of up to 19% is possible.

The maths are compelling – if you can increase the performance of more than half of your sales team by even 5% then the boost to sales is enormous. So, that is where we urge managers to focus and it is also where our sales coaching tool (SellerNAV®) works best.